Northamptonshire Biodiversity Records Centre

With the Bedfordshire and Luton Biodiversity NBRC Newsletter 11 Recording and Monitoring Centre we put in an application to Natural England’s West Anglia December 2015 regional Innovation Fund for support for the purchase of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle or

What’s happening with WILDside? drone, and the training, authorisation and other bits and pieces that are required to operate a Well, after an initial rush to try to submit the UAV for commercial purposes. Our delight at the application with further supporting information news of a successful bid was short-lived, as soon as possible after our unsuccessful first however, being quickly followed by the news that bid, the time taken to gather and present all that the pot of money for regional innovation had extra data, and then to revise the programme to already been used elsewhere. Disappointing take account of the likely new start time meant though this may have been, we were told that that the revised application didn’t finally go in our project is pre-approved, should a similar until November 27th. This means that we should grant fund exist in future years. NBRC and BRMC now learn the outcome soon after the HLF panel would both like to thank the NE West Anglia team meets on January 24th 2016. for their support and encouragement. Depending on the outcome, there will be a lot to There are several reasons for investigating drone do between then and the full public launch in use, particularly in relation to extending the May. We’ll organise a meeting date for early services NBRC might offer in future, especially in February, (possible dates to be circulated soon) relation to habitat mapping, or site evaluation for everyone who has already offered to help and monitoring, particularly for locations that are with or is interested in supporting different difficult to survey on the ground. We see this as a aspects of the project so we can ensure that it way of combining ‘big picture’, high level satellite achieves its full potential. data that will be available from the Copernicus system, with knowledge of species and habitat occurrence on the ground which will be Drones over Northants? increasingly important in relation to natural capital appraisal and the resilience of ecosystem I was told recently that Natural England’s annual services. budget at the time of its creation in 2006 was Without the support from NE, it’s difficult to take £120M – and that it’s now just £17M, and set to things forward in this particular area at present, decline still further. In some ways it’s difficult to but we’ll wait to see what the new financial year see how the agency can continue to operate brings. effectively or ensure that we achieve the Biodiversity 2020 targets. Steve Whitbread One consequence was a halving of the support NE provides to Local Environmental Records Best wishes for a joyous Christmas and an extremely Centres at the start of the present financial year, happy New Year from all of us at the Records Centre which had some impact on our overall funding. Nathalie, Rachel, James and Steve.

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Just the cricket… As its common name suggests, the southern oak bush cricket is found more in southern parts of On Saturday 19th September 2015, I targeted as Europe. Like other ‘southern’ invertebrate species many public parks in Northampton as I could, it is now expanding its range northwards, and was armed with an umbrella and a metal pole for first found in the UK in 2001 (although still hadn’t bashing branches of many of the broad-leaved made it into the NBN Gateway database by 2008). trees. The target species was the southern oak bush cricket ( meridionale). Sadly, I Unlike our more familiar, native, oak bush cricket altogether failed to find any all day. (Meconema thalassima), it is flightless, with very short wings , even in the adults. It is a late season However, I did recall where Jim Dunkley found species in the UK, usually found through autumn the species new for Northants (VC32) back in from late August. Its small invertebrate prey November 2010. So, on Sunday 20th Sept 2015, I includes the horse-chestnut leaf miner targeted Round Spinney Industrial Estate. It took (Cameraria ohridella). a while but (Bingo!) I found several males and females, probably where Jim first got the species. Grasshoppers and related species are often under Spurred on by success, I tried as many industrial recorded although they can be identified by the estates in Northampton as I could, including sounds the males make (by stridulation or

Brackmills, Lodge Farm and Moulton Park. drumming). As with other invertebrate species there are many gaps to fill for Northants.

I also noticed that the bush crickets were easy to find on maple tree species including Acer campestre (Field Maple) and Acer platanoides (Norway Maple). I could not believe it. I found the species at every industrial estate in Northampton I visited! However, the species isn’t everywhere within

Even maples by the Moulton Park Business Centre entrance were these industrial estates, well not yet, and I only bashed to find southern oak bush cricket. found a few males at each site. The best locations to target within these industrial estates appears to be where the foreign lorries park. This proved very successful and I found the species at every site.

A male southern oak bush cricket.

At Brackmills, the very first lot of trees I tried had the species. This estate is very big but I thought I would target different industrial estates within One of the many females found by Brian Laney via bashing maple the different grid squares for recording purposes. trees. 2

Moulton Park was by far the best site, and in one pollution, are increasing in diversity but not area of the estate, every maple I bashed, resulted returning to pre-Industrial Revolution conditions. in southern oak bush crickets dropping out! Some species are spreading rapidly in the modern nutrient-enriched landscape; Halecania viridescens was downgraded from IUCN ‘Near

Threatened’ to ‘Least Concern’ in 2012 and it is currently ‘exploding’ in our region. Catillaria fungoides was described as new to science in 2001 from the Iberian Peninsula, records of it spread across Europe, and in February 2015 I

found it new to Britain on a young ash stem in Huntingdonshire. Since then it has turned up in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex and Gloucestershire; it is highly likely to turn up in Close-up showing the tiny wings on back of southern oak bush Northamptonshire. In the years around the cricket. Millennium there was a flurry of papers My plan now is to expand my search and check describing further species new to science several other industrial estates within Northamptonshire. of which (e.g. Bacidia neosquamulosa and All records will go to NBRC, as well as to the Lecanora barkmaniana) are now widespread on Grasshoppers and Related Recording nutrient-rich bark. As recently as the 1970s the Scheme of Britain and Ireland in due course. I ‘pollution lichen’ (Lecanora conizaeoides) would suggest to everyone, check your industrial dominated the bark of trees and shrubs across estates for this species especially where maple most of the Midlands and this species has bucked trees are present. Good luck to you all. the trend, retreating to become a specialist of acidic substrata such as weathered lignum. To a Brian Laney lichenologist the landscape has changed beyond recognition in four decades. Introducing myself as the lichen The lichens of old stonework in churchyards have recorder for Northamptonshire: changed less dramatically but even here modern surveys tend to produce longer and different lists I am active in recording lichens across several compared with those conducted in the 1990s. counties straddling the Midlands, Home Counties Here the change is largely due to advances in and East Anglia and have been the county , some arising from DNA work but recorder for Huntingdonshire since 2010, a much useful work is still achieved with a hand position which I retain. Northamptonshire has lens and conventional microscopy. For several been rather neglected by lichenologists apart years I was haunted by a diminutive species of from the churchyard surveys undertaken by Ivan Verrucaria which is common on church Pedley and the late Tom Chester, most of which windowsills (and not infrequent on cement) and were conducted in the 1990s. I will be very which seemed to be virtually unknown to modern pleased to hear from anyone else, whether British lichenologists. beginner or expert, who would like to help with My suspicion that it might be V. ochrostoma was lichen recording in the county. confirmed by a visit to the Natural History It is an exciting time to study lichens in the Museum to examine William Borrer’s 19th English lowlands. Corticolous communities on century type specimen. tree bark, which were devastated by industrial

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While I was there I noticed that V. ochrostoma is Polycoccum slaptoniense, which infests X. one of the dominant species on the limestone parietina, is new to Northants and only the fourth coping of the low walls at the entrance to the British record. On the branch of a planted poplar museum where it has flaunted itself unseen on tree I found an extensive colony of Excipularia the ‘doorstep’ of British lichenology. Another fusispora, a fungus with only six previous British common species of church windowsills has been records. Currently E. fusispora is recorded by hiding in plain sight, camouflaged amongst the mycologists rather than lichenologists but careful other brown crusts which grow on limestone. I microscopic examination of the Stanwick material had a suspicion that this was a distinct entity and suggests to me that the fungal hyphae are reference to a recent Polish review of the genus consistently and intimately associated with revealed that its true identity is Verrucaria Trentepohlia alga and so I may be able to prove obfuscans which was formally added to the that this organism ought to actually be British list in 2015. considered a lichen. With the light fading I had time for little more than a short ‘browse’ at Stanwick churchyard. Nevertheless I found a windowsill dominated by V. obfuscans and a limestone memorial with abundant V. ochrostoma, two species which would not have appeared on churchyard lists until very recent times. These notes will indicate how much useful recording work there is to be done in the county. Not all of this work requires microscopic examination of ‘micro-lichens’. Normandina pulchella, a distinctive species of mossy tree trunks, is currently invading the Midlands from which it was previously absent. Although tiny, it can be recognised in the field through a hand Verrucaria obfuscans on a limestone tomb covering the right hand two thirds of the image. First recorded for Britain in February lens, and a digital photograph will serve as a 2015, it is proving to be a common feature of iron-stained church voucher. windowsills. The left hand side of the image shows the similar brown crust of V. macrostoma with which V. obfuscans has been previously confused. A good example of V. obfuscans is present on a south-facing windowsill near the east end of Stanwick church.

On the 2nd December I spent a short day in Stanwick, the first day with my new (metaphorical) recorder’s hat on. Most of my time was spent at Stanwick Lakes where over ninety taxa were recorded, several of which are new to Northants. The list includes half a dozen lichenicolous fungi (specialist parasitic fungi, often host-specific, which grow on lichens). Even Normandina pulchella, well-developed Scottish material (image such ubiquitous lichens as the yellow-orange courtesy of Mike Sutcliffe) showing the blue-green squamules with Xanthoria parietina become more exciting when upturned margins, resembling ears or sea-shells. Each squamule measures up to 5mm in diameter. one takes the plunge with these ‘parasites’ which represent a wealth of under-recorded diversity. 4

There are currently no records of this species for Polebrook Airfield Nature Reserve Northamptonshire in the British Lichen Society 2015 Bioblitz - Results so far… database (though I have one record from Horton Woods which isn’t yet in the system). N. pulchella This year NBRC held its annual BioBlitz event at was formerly an extreme rarity in Holland but has Polebrook Airfield Nature Reserve, in the north of spread rapidly and has even invaded city parks in the county over a weekend in early June. Amsterdam. This species appears to be Although we had quite a cool evening on the undergoing a similar expansion in the English Saturday, the sun came out to keep us warm on Midlands and local records of it would be very Sunday. We would like to thank everyone who welcome. participated and contributed to this very Mark Powell ([email protected]) successful event.

The British Lichen Society is now in process of e stablishing a vice-county recorders’ network across the UK, a move that is to be encouraged generally, and the NBRC team is delighted that Mark will be taking on this role for VC32 (alongside everything else he is doing).

West Anglian Tigers - upcoming survey

The Wildlife Trust BCN, like other Wildlife Trusts across Polebrook Airfield, Nathalie Hueber the UK, regularly organises So far we have received 1,252 observations surveys as activities to comprising 610 different species. This count appeal to existing and includes 41 moss and liverwort records that were potential members, giving recorded prior to the event in February during the opportunity to reach the appropriate season for this taxon group. further too. Together with our counterpart Records Centres in The number of different species within each Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire, and in taxon group received so far is indicated in the collaboration with the three County Recorders for chart. The group with the highest number of macro moths we’ll be running a survey through species recorded this year were the vascular next year that, as well as publicising the value of plants with 171 species, moths had 57 species biodiversity information and telling some recorded closely followed by 56 species of lichen, interesting wildlife stories, is intended to produce and 55 species of true flies. Also, this year we useful records and encourage future involvement have separated out the gall records which were with recording (something that we’ll link with previously included within the relevant taxon WILDside if that gets the go ahead). groups. The tiger moths are an interesting group, Of the species records received so far, 40 have a covering a range of habitats and relatively easy to notable or protected status at a national level. identify, and to verify from photographs. The These include: 17 birds; 2 bats; 7 moths; 3 Jersey tiger is spreading steadily, and yet the butterflies; 1 amphibian; 9 lichens; and 1 moss Garden tiger appears to be undergoing rapid species. decline. Look out for details in early 2016.

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Nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos, and Wren Number of species per taxon group Troglodytes troglodytes were regularly noted 180 however, the most frequently recorded bird was 160 unsurprisingly…….. the Cuckoo Cuculus canorus.

140 With its distinctive call it also received the second

120 highest number of observations during the event. 100 However, the prize for the most frequently 80 recorded species over the weekend as a whole 60 went to the Common Blue butterfly Polyommatus Numberofspecies 40 icarus. 20 0 The three UK notable species of butterfly Group recorded during the event were; Grizzled Skipper Pyrgus malvae, Dingy Skipper Erynnis tages and Vascular plants 171 Moths 57 Small Heath Coenonympha pamphilus. Lichens 56 True flies 55 Algae 50 Beetles 48 Mosses/Liverworts 46 Birds 41 Galls 20 Butterflies 16 Bees/Wasps/Ants 11 Crustaceans 6 True bugs 6 Mammals 6 Fungi 5 Dragonflies 5 Grasshoppers/Crickets 4 Amphibians 2

Molluscs 2 Caddis flies 1 Mayflies 1 Millipedes 1

Over a third of the bird species recorded are listed as red/amber status or protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act. Five red listed species that were recorded are; Song Thrush, Yellowhammer, Cuckoo, Turtle Dove and Skylark. Common blue butterfly Polyommatus icarus at Polebrook Airfield Nature Reserve. Nathalie Hueber

We are pleased to be able to say that with the records we’ve received so far the number of records we hold for this private nature reserve has been increased from 231 to 1,485. More importantly, the number of different species recorded at the site has risen from 167 to 657. These results show once again how successful these events are for improving our knowledge of the diversity of species at key sites within our county. Rachel Tate

Turtle Dove Streptopelia turtur at Polebrook Airfield Nature The location for the 2016 Bioblitz site should be Reserve. Bob Bullock finalised shortly, depending on whether or not

there will be access to the favoured site. 6

We’ll be pleased to receive any outstanding A detailed account of The Roughs with lists of the observations so that we can complete a final species recorded is being published elsewhere.

Polebrook Bioblitz report early in 2016. Dr. Labern agreed without a moment's hesitation and

In 2000, the first and only issue of the Wildlife of went off to begin the necessary paperwork. Northamptonshire and the Soke of Peterborough was Unfortunately this reasonable and desirable plan was produced, under the editorship of Tony Drane. never realised. For some incomprehensible reason - Leafing through the various interesting articles we which appalled me - it was decided to reduce the size came across this piece about ‘the Roughs’ which we of the S.S.S.I. by de-requisitioning all but 150 acres of

realised referred to what we now know as Polebrook the central part of the woodland. Four pairs of Airfield, which we thought would make an nightingales sang on heedlessly in The Roughs, luckily interesting companion piece to our Bioblitz update. oblivious of the fact they were no longer adequately The author, one Miriam Rothschild: protected. When 1998 dawned, it was decided to organise leisurely walk-about surveys to record the

plants, mammals, birds, moths, and butterflies that Dreaming of Biodiversity had crossed the road between The Roughs and the S.S.S.I., the seeds no doubt carried and planted by After World War II, the Air Ministry de-requisitioned some energetic squirrel or jay, or discovered by the 75 acres of agricultural land lying alongside scooting butterflies or birds. At Ashton we are Ashton Wold, removed the buildings from the surface situated in the Eastern Counties' mini-cornbelt. Is of the area and returned it to its owner honeycombed there any area in the British Isles more polluted by the with underground concrete shelters. The entrances to use of agricultural chemicals, and with a greater these tunnels soon became concealed by rubble and number and variety of eliminated hedgerows? By long grass - dangerous for the unwary - and in some 1998 we had lost an incredible number of both cases they filled with water. A forlorn, half -ruined resident and visiting birds. Seventy-five thousand brick tower once a wireless-receiving station, starlings roosting in the Lake fields, residents as well remained on the northern perimeter apparently as migrants, have vanished. Not a single sparrow is to forgotten by the Ministry. At that time there was no be seen even in the stack-yard. Pied wagtails used to adequate machinery for removing the underground be exceedingly common here. I counted 117 in the shelters, so agriculture was abandoned and the owner garden and surrounding fields, but this year I could decided to try and put one of her pet theories to the find only a single pair on the water tower. For the first test :- that all Nature Reserves are too small but if time in 100 years, no swallows nested on the house. pieces of the surrounding land could be purchased or We used to leave the front door open and they built leased, and then left entirely alone, the interesting on the oak beams in the front hall. The flock of house fauna and flora would gradually seep into it, forming a martins which preferred a site below the eaves are protective zone and eventually an extension of the here no longer. The nightjars with their sewing Reserve itself, containing at least some of its rarities. machine-like noise have gone too. In the garden three This was a heaven-sent opportunity! Our curious relic or four robins used to follow me round, knowing I of the war was nicknamed "The Roughs" and was left carried food in my pocket. Now if one happens to its own devices for 50 years. Twenty years passed to appear on the bird-table it is quite an event. In and the owner was so impressed by the trees, bushes, April only a single cuckoo called from somewhere in flowers, birds and insects - particularly four species of the wood. The most depressing part of our "Silent wild roses -which had appeared in "The Roughs" that Spring" is the decline of Ashton's incomparable dawn she invited Dr. M.V. Labern from the Nature chorus. The juxtaposition of such a variety of different Conservancy to look at the place and suggested it habitats round the house and grounds accounted for should be included in the Ashton Nature Reserve this unique feature in days gone by. For a scientist I (S.S.S.I.) from which it was separated by only a narrow am sentimental about birds. Long ago a rook and a country road. magpie would tap on my window about 6am and beg

7 for food. They were never disappointed. The magpie Dame Miriam Rothschild died in 2005, a key figure in always came in for a spell, shared my breakfast and natural history in the 20th century, an expert amused herself looking for bright objects to play with. amateur who once commented, “I must say I find Before departing she would pick up a piece of food - everything interesting”. preferably a slice of liver - and drop it down the back of my neck, - a gesture of polite gratitude. Visitors Perhaps one day we’ll be able to track down those used to enquire after "Pammy" - not one of my walk-about survey records and evaluate the extent children - but an unusually affectionate tawny owl to which the SSSI buffer has been further colonised. who had come into my care with a broken wing and had remained twelve years. In the evenings she would hoot up friends from the wood and eventually persuaded one to stay; he remained a shy bird by day Updates and hid stubbornly in the ivy until nightfall. The Emily Grace Williams, a graduate seeking a career Roughs have helped my theory although conversion is in the biodiversity area, started work on our slow and the terrain is expensive. A piece of land left Biodiversity Information and Planning Project to its own devices alongside an S.S.S.I. will provide (BIPP) in October. She is focussing on two local protection for our dwindling air fauna and some of planning authorities within the county and is the rarities from the Reserve will gradually discover it. working her way through past planning This year the silver-washed fritillary and the green applications involving renewable energy projects hairstreak (egg-laying) were recorded once again at in order to evaluate the extent and value of the Ashton and the indigenous service tree was there in biological data used to inform the development full bloom. Only one of these trees is still growing in process at each stage. A report can be expected the Reserve itself, about half a mile distant, in Cabin in the new year. Plain. Ten walk-about surveyors who spent only a few hours each in The Roughs recorded the following In our last issue we mentioned that work was number of species:- 65 of birds (despite the losses in now underway to begin tackling the backlog of the district), 15 of mammals, 309 of trees, bushes, datasets. Bryophytes was one of our priority broad-leaved plants, grasses and mosses, 246 of species groups and with only 299 records put butterflies and moths. This suggests we need many aside for further checking, the NBRC database Roughs in the "corn-belt" counties. Recently television now includes 18,524 moss and liverwort records showed us the renewed Covent Garden Opera House stretching back to 1830 from datasets supplied by in all its dazzling glory, which had cost 314 million Rachel Carter in 2006-14. As with other species pounds to restore. We listened to the strains of a group datasets, we’ll be adding the latest records German Opera rolling forth into the ebony darkness each year to keep the database up to date. but why should we not spend 300 million pounds, before it is too late, restoring the dawn chorus and delight a larger audience? Any day we can build an Identification Training opera house, but we don't know how to build a For news of the Wildlife Trust’s 2016 Training sparrow. Workshops programme visit the webpage. There are some cracking new courses available. Miriam Rothschild lives at Ashton Wold and has written 300 papers and 12 scientific books on fleas, butterflies, birds, mammals, fish, molluscs, worms, Contact Details * myxoma virus and biochemistry of insects. Northamptonshire Biodiversity Records Centre c/o The Wildlife Trust BCN *Reproduced from The Wildlife of Northamptonshire and the Soke Lings House, Billing Lings, Northampton, NN3 8BE of Peterborough, No.1 2000. Tel: 01604 400448, Fax: 01604 784835 Email: [email protected] Website: www.northantsbrc.org.uk

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We thought we’d produce this A festive distribution map for Northamptonshire map to celebrate Christmas (Next year Perdix and Pyrus! ) but it also serves to highlight how even a Records of Ilex aquifolium, Hedera helix and species such as ivy that must occur Viscum album in the NBRC database. in almost every 1 km grid shows huge gaps in its observed distribution at a high resolution.

Holly appears to be as widespread but less frequent – or at least less frequently recorded.

(That E-W line of joint records across the middle of the map has the appearance of organised botanical recording but may just be happenstance)

Meanwhile, mistletoe is much more scattered, and far less frequently recorded, obvious though it is at certain times of year.

Perhaps it should be included as one of the Northampton Hundred (about which more in 2016).

Best wishes for Christmas and the year ahead…